I will vote for the AK Party
BELGİN AKALTAN - belgin.akaltan@hdn.com.tr
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Yes, I will. I will vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the coming local elections in March; for them to have a landslide victory, the biggest ever… I have my reasons. I know I’m biting off more than I can chew. I know… Be patient…This is based on the concept of “beating them at their own game.”
This government, the AKP, has been ruling us more than 10 years. They think democracy is one-dimensional – the vote. Plus the headscarf. They rest on the number of votes, the number of seats and the ballot box, and argue at every opportunity that they are the winners. They think they own the country, know better than any of us as long as they have the majority. By voting for them, I am saying: “Okay then, here it is: Have it all. Let’s see you in your full capacity.”
There is nothing for us to lose. They are winning anyway. I think we can survive another four years. This will be like a lesson to everybody, even to our own selves.
Yes, I want to start a campaign “Vote for AKP this time.” If they are constantly polarizing the society and thinking in terms of “us and them,” well then, here is an enlarged “us.” Here we are: “We are one of you. Have anything you want. Change the constitution, become the all-powerful president.” (What next, you are now asking. Don’t worry. If or when this happens, we’ll have the power to change it back. We will again find a way.)
This is like creating your own opposition. On the one hand, we are becoming “one of them” and on the other hand, being one of them will give us the power to become their internal opposition. Actually, one step further: Go and register at local AKP branches. Register at youth branches, women’s branches of the AKP. Join their meetings, activities, forces. Go to Erdoğan rallies. Increase the hundreds of thousands to millions.
Let’s do this. Vote for AKP.
Let’s vote for AKP as a reaction.
I believe this will be an unprecedented campaign, voting for the party you want to get rid of. Let’s carry AKP to their highest peak with our reactionary votes. There is only one direction for them to go after this: downward.
The elections have been turned into a game. Let’s make it a bigger game…
This is like the Gezi resistance. It will be the first in Turkey if not the first in the world. (Please, please, I want to name it “Belginism.”)
It needs a Gezi spirit and Gezi determination to spread this, understand this and believe in this. It may need some kind of Gezi intelligence also.
What advantages will we have?
1) The biggest advantage will be that they would not find anyone to blame this time. They will find nobody to hate. If they have an enormous victory, like 90 percent of all votes, then it is all theirs. They have no excuses.
2) This will send the best message to the opposition, telling them to pull themselves together. Their strategy, what they have done up to now, does not work. They have to make a new one. Work, act, think, change, for the love of god; this country deserves better.
3) This mass voting for the AKP will inflate the illusion that everybody in Turkey adores them: They will have to admit there are no marauders in this country, no traitors, no interest rate lobby, no atheists, no alcoholics… We will be all the same, the devout and vengeful generation, they always dreamed of.
4) By being one of them, we will force them to understand us. We will give the message, “I’m not your enemy. I’m one of you…We are on the same side.” Actually, they will have to serve all of us. We will have several demands from them, now that we are one of them. In a way, we will also be ruling.
5) We will pull them to the center from their extremism.
6) Once they taste this kind of an unprecedented victory, they would not want to lose it. They will do anything to keep it. Change will be inevitable. They will go mad with victory.
7) This will also prove that election victories, vote percentage, winning seats, even political success are all relative concepts. These figures can go up and down for no good reason. We will send the message that this kind of “numerical success” does not really mean a thing.
8) The AKP is like a chess player. They have surveys done; they calculate. They act accordingly. They aim at winning the elections and they do. Well, this is an unexpected move. This is like playing chess with a computer. You can only beat the computer by making unexpected moves. Their statistics and projections will go upside down.
9) Nothing has come out of taking the elections seriously: I mean, one votes for a party one believes will best look after one’s interests. I would normally vote for the CHP. And the result is always disappointment; both in numbers and in performance. It will be the same this time. But if I and all other CHP and other non-AKP voters vote for AKP, then we will all see what will happen. To all of them…
10) They have been baffled throughout the Gezi. This will totally knock them out.
With this pace and these skills of the opposition, AKP will be ruling us for another 20 years if not 30. So we will be waiting at least 20 more years. Why not skip one election? Nothing will change.
Let’s see where this goes… Gezi was first… This will be a first also… This is not applicable to any other country. But we will do it… We can do it… (Yes, we can.) This is just an idea… Let’s see where it takes us to…
This is a very simple idea, as any good idea.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction,” Albert Einstein has said.
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